AKK: NNPLC insists project 70 per cent completed after spending $1.1bn
Amid controversy, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL has debunked claims that it has abandoned the Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano (AKK) gas pipeline project; the company said the project is 70 per cent completed after gulping $1.1 billion. The Group Chief Executive Officer of NNPC Ltd, Mele Kyari, disclosed this on Monday while inspecting a project section at Ahoko Gbagyi village in Kogi State. The AKK project has an estimated investment of $2.8 billion to transport 3,500 million metric standard cubic feet per day (Mmscfd) of dehydrated wet gas from several gas-gathering projects in the southern region to the northern part of Nigeria. The project failed to come alive in 2022 as the initial proposed completion date after commencement in July 2020. To this end, reports saturated the media space claiming the project had been stalled due to over-blunted contract costs. However, the Management of NNPCL denied the claim, saying the project is ongoing. Kyari said: "This project has not stopped for one day. We continue to fund it even though we do not have third-party finance for this project. We have so far spent over $1.1 billion on this project from our cash flow". The primary benefit of the project is that it would provide 3,600MW of power to the national grid, thereby improving the power supply in the Northern part of the country.